Friday, February 5, 2010

Equipment Search

We still have a couple days (maybe even a week) until we can get in the building. There was some kind of a delay in escrow while at the same time Wayne booked a flight to Colorado for this morning. He has a storage shed there filled with equipment and tools. He's going to drive it all back to Portland so we can get do the majority of the remodel ourselves. He'll be back on Wednesday and hopefully the escrow delay will be settled by then.

This down time has been really great for us because we've been able to get a lot of planning done. I went to multiple restaurant equipment stores, including Rose's, Pitman and Gold Star. Rose's by far had the most equipment - both new and used - but they were also the most expensive. I was a little disappointed with the lack of used equipment that Pitman had. Their website makes it look like they have a lot more. But the Pitman's were super nice and if you have to get new equipment, that's the place to go because they have much better prices on new equipment. Gold Star had really amazing prices on used equipment, but not as large of a selection as Rose's.

I still comb Craigslist every day for deals. We found an amazing deal on a hand washing sink and drove up to Ridgefield, Washington just to get it. Only thing with CL is that you have to pay cash - and the name of the game when starting a new business is to preserve as much cash as possible.

Speaking of cash, I wanted to give our banker, Miten, at US Bank a plug. We've been with him for a year and a half and he's wonderful. He's the small business banker at the US Bank on SE 39th & Salmon. If anyone out there is thinking of starting a business in Portland, I highly recommend having a sit down with Miten. He's very smart and helpful.

Hall of Records is a boutique vinyl shop, cafe & bar specializing in soul, funk, jazz, latin, hip hop, deep funk and rare groove records. It is a social environment to listen, share and discover new music, with listening stations, open turntables and beer & wine.